…As group key members are on the run.
Scores of members of the outlawed Indigenous Peoples Of Biafra,IPOB have been arrested,in Ogbe Ahiara and Akpodim Communities, while its key leaders who escaped have been declared wanted by the Nigerian security operatives made up of the Police,DSS and Army , generally known as Joint Task Force,JTF.
Our correspondent reported that following the lingering security challenges being experienced in the Mbaise communities of Imo state, the JTF had to mount surveillance in the areas aimed at frustrating and neutralizing the alleged activities of the known members of the IPOB in the axis.
According to reports the security operatives, following a tip off swooped the sleeping communities of Ogbe Ahiara and Akpodim in Mbaise Local Government Area on July 21,2023 with a clear agenda, as it was reported of arresting many IPOB members said
to be operating in the area with ease.
“It was said that the activities of the IPOB members are quite prevalent in these areas and the Nigerian government is determined to keep the country united and secured,”the report stated .
Meanwhile, Nigeria Newspoint gathered that on the fateful day,July 21, the JTF was reported to have stormed the area at the wee hours of the night, while natives were asleep ,combing the entire communities, shooting sporadically and setting houses of suspected members of IPOB ablaze.
The members of the agitation group whose homes were reportedly set on fire include; one Isaac Onuoha,Kennedy Iheoma, Adolphus Nnorom,Ndubuisi Chikere and Emeka Anyanwu who are known die-hard members of the group and are believed to have been declared wanted ; dead or alive by Nigerian government security forces.
Our reporter equally noted that the brutal attack of JTF on the Mbaise communities has rendered many families homeless with scores of the people missing without trace as at Press time.
It was equally revealed that the parents of two of the above key IPOB members lost their lives in the inferno.
Emeka Anyanwu and Adolphus Nnorom each reportedly lost their aged fathers in the gruesome and inhuman attack.
A source disclosed that Kennedy Iheoma who was in-charge of IPOB in Ogbe community and usually hosted the group’s meeting was arrested few days before JTF hit the area.Many fear he must have been killed.
As at Press time the whereabouts of Nnorom,,Chikere and others are also not known.
Many leaders and stakeholders in Mbaise including traditional rulers in Ogbe, Ahiara and Akpodim and Imo state in general have flayed the approach of the Nigerian security operatives against IPOB which they opined has the right to agitate for self actualization and emancipation as result of marginalization in Nigeria since after the civil war.
It will be recalled that the IPOB members are mainly from the South East and South South parts of the Nigerian nation who are driven by the sore interest towards emancipation of their people from alleged gross marginalization in politics and beyond. Since after the Nigerian Civil war the people of the Southern part of Nigeria have always wished to have a Biafra nation as they are said not to be integrated in today’s governance of Nigeria.
